


First Drift

by Bad_Wolf



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-03
Updated: 2013-09-03
Packaged: 2017-12-25 11:58:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/952806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bad_Wolf/pseuds/Bad_Wolf





	First Drift

The wooden weapons cracked loudly in the hollow metal room. The man across Aleksis brought his weapon down with a crash, but Aleksis caught the blow and spun away. He was sweating and felt a little heady, he knew they were matching. The fluid and ceaseless blows indicated they were drift compatible, the ranger across the mat grinned at Aleksis and indicated that they should keep trading blows.  
Half an hour later, laughing and promising him a round of beer, the ranger, Anton, left Aleksis in the training dome to report for duty. Aleksis was left alone in the dome with other drift partners sparring around him. Not even half of these rangers would make it into a Jaegar and even fewer would actually master controlling the Jaeger enough to be On-Call. Aleksis grinned to himself, that was the only thing that mattered, being an On-Call Ranger, those who actually fought the kaiju. Aleksis was determined to be in one of those bulky metal suits, even if he had to kill himself to get there.  
~three weeks later~  
The blaring sirens of a kaiju wake-up call thrummed Aleksis’ ear drum. His heart punched its way out of his chest and somewhere into the region of his stomach as Aleksis rolled out of the too small bed and scrambled for his clothes. Two minutes later Aleksis was pushing through the frenzied crowds to the jaeger dome; the usual organized bedlam was absent, people were milling around restlessly, he ignored it and went to get suited. The technicians looked at him uncertainly, his suit was still connected to the wall, the boots weren’t even unbuckled for him. Aleksis growled at the technicians and motioned towards the suit. They leapt back, one of them holding out an impact wrench as a weapon. “ALEKSIS! Aaaleksis!” Still growling, Aleksis turned and found a Communications Ranger, Hannah, running towards him and out of breath, “An- Anton won’t- You see. There was an accident, and – …” Aleksis found his lips turning cold; thick slime trickled down his throat as the Ranger explained Anton’s death. The talking washed over Aleksis, whatever the Comm Ranger said was blurring out like a distant horn.  
“HEY! Are you fucking listening to me?” The Comm Ranger slapped Aleksis hard across the face, “I told you to get suited up. Anton is dead but you’ve still got a job to do. There’s a Jaeger Pilot who flew in yesterday who might match with you. You get suited up and you do your fucking job! Got it, you giant oaf?” Dazed, Aleksis nodded and turned towards the technicians so they could suit him up.  
~ten minutes later~  
Aleksis was furious with himself, gnashing his teeth together wasn’t helping so he kept running through the checklist Pilots were suppose to go through before a kaiju encounter. The third time around the Comm Rangers weren’t even responding to his furious button smashing when the Jaeger Pilot finally arrived. “Jesus, you are a bear. Are you genetically modified?” Aleksis bared his teeth and flipped the Ranger off. Without another word, the Ranger strapped herself into position, plugging in her shoulder connections. She stuck her hands into the jaeger grips and punched in her code. Aleksis heard the Comms tower buzz into their headset. “Drift attempt in five…four…three…two…”  
A wall of moving sound pushed past his eyes, sucking his thoughts and emotions towards another ocean of glittering memories. To his chagrin, it was Aleksis who had trouble not following the rabbit down its hole, the other Ranger, Sasha, Sasha was holding him steady, demanding that he hurry up and straighten out so they could get going.  
“Drift connection….holding steady.” The Comm tower sounded surprised and pleased. Sasha said what they were both thinking, “Damn straight we are, now let’s get the fuck out of here. That kaiju’s on the move ain’t it?”


End file.
